Not World War Z. I’m sorry but while this might be a cool zombie movie, its not WWZ. Giant mass of zombies going really fast? I mean the fast thing I could forgive but what is this mob-snake thing? I am really disappointed, its the 1998 Godzilla all over again.

But…but…World War Z is the Cloud Atlas/Ken Burn’s Civil War documentary of Zombie films….This is not likeable. Hell, the original script that was going around seemed more likeable, with the main character being tied to the Canada expansion and having to deal with a daughter who thought she was a zombie because she had been abandoned in the wilderness. THAT would’ve been a good movie. Give it to Rian Johnson to direct and that would’ve been the best thing since sliced bread. This is The Mummy Part 4. Based on the trailer I wouldn’t put my jam on this.

A friend of mine who runs her own zombie merch company (zombiezom.com) met Max Brooks at NYCC and he told her he was washing his hands of the whole thing. He had no input into what they did to the story and was “disappointed” in what he’d seen. I also hate the CGI zombies and the army ant-like swarming (good analogy, previous poster!) speed zombies. It will look cool, but it won’t be World War Z. I guess the psychological horror of a zombie apocalypse would have taken too long for Hollywood, and it has to be more of the same “loud noise-fast movement” surprises they rely on any more.

@Otis Clearly they have fucked with the book BIG TIME. He has no family in the book, it is not HIS responsibility to save the world and he is not PRESENT for any of the events that he researches for the UN.

I have no problem with this movie at all and I hope it will be amazing, but it is complete bullshit to throw the WWZ name on it.

As soon as I hit send on my previous comment I realized that the fact these zombies move like a fast, ridiculously massive tidal wave of dead meat makes implemementing the war doctrine from the book impossible. Thus completely throwing away one of the most interesting ideas in the book: the way that zombie warfare necessitated a complete re-think of every single aspect of the military’s standard operating procedure (uniforms, weapons, tactics, training methods, even recruiting guidelines). And even if they attempt some dumbed down, less morally gray version of Paul Redeker’s plan, will Hollywood style American exceptionalism and political correctness allow the idea that saves human civilization to come from an Apartheid era South African bureaucrat?

These aren’t just “Fast” Zombies, these are “Defying the laws of physics and having full grown humanoid figures behave as if they have hardly any mass individually but are just water droplets being sucked along as part of a literal wave” Zombies. Seriously, these things don’t go over and around obstacles like a swarm of people (or ex-people) would, they wash over things like a fucking corpse tsunami. Interesting visual but completely ridiculous, especially considering the grounded, naturalistic tone of the source material. I know a 30 second teaser can be misleading, but based on this and all the stories and rumors swirling around this production, if this thing winds up even vaguely resembling the World War Z of Max Brooks’ novel I’ll be stunned. And if the filmmakers forgo the hard painful slog of the Redeker Plan for some magical hand waving Hollywood quick fix (We found a cure! Everything can go back to normal in a matter of days!) then they can take their fanciful zombie ocean and drown in it..

Hmmm, verrrry mixed feelings here. I love the idea of a World War Z movie, but already I’m seeing two major elements that seem very off of Max Brooks’s vision:
1) Fast running zombies. Now I personally am a fan of the fast moving “infected” model, so this is not about that particular debate, BUT in all of Max’s books, he very directly specifies that the zombies in that world are shamblers, unable to run or climb because their muscles are deteriorated. In this teaser they’re scrambling over buses and walls like army ants. It’s a very impressive image, make no mistake, but already I feel like I’m watching someone else’s zombie movie, not Max’s.
b) “Only one man can save the world!” Now maybe this is just ET doing their usual job of star-a$$-kissing for Brad Pitt, and it’s not how the movie itself will be structured, but it makes me worry, because the book World War Z is not about any one character. The whole beauty of it is that it shows the war from a variety of perspectives, and shows how people from every level and stratus responded to and dealt with the worldwide zombie apocalypse. The idea of turning this into an action vehicle for one brand-name star… well I just hope that’s ET blowing his role out of proportion, otherwise, again, this could be a really exciting zombie movie, but WWZ in name only.

Don’t get me wrong, I know full well that no movie is going to match the vision of the book 100%, but these are two major elements that made Max’s books stand out, so taking these away really makes this feel like they might as well have titled it “28 Months Later” and tacked it onto that franchise just as easily. But this is just a teaser, so I’m still reserving final judgement until more information is available, and in the meantime I’ll stay excited about the prospect of seeing this book on screen.

Interesting indeed. Did they scrap the whole series of interviews format for the film version? I can understand why they did if that is the case but these clips make it look like just any other post apocalyptic film. World War Z would deserve better.

Even from that little snippet I’m very disappointed. WWZ can ONLY be done justice as a multi-part historical documentary, and it seems as though they’ve made it into another boring, formulaic ‘one man against the world’ flick. Yawn.